Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
by redhandedwickedlittlemachine
Summary: Sometimes things fall apart. But that doesn't mean the love isn't still there. And it doesn't mean it didn't still mean as much as it did. Rating for suggestive circumstances. ONESHOT.


**A/N: **I wrote this last summer, long before we knew most of what we knew about this season. I've always loved this song, from the first time I heard it, and I felt that at the time it fit Ezria in their break-up, so I wrote this. It's short, and probably could be a million times better because I was dealing with a lot when I wrote it...but I love it the way it is. So, do enjoy :)

_Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye_

Aria could so easily recall a time when things hadn't been like this. It was nothing for her to sit back and recall the many times they had shared the same coffee cup over breakfast, or argued over what the correct answer was to the crossword puzzle. In fact, there were far too** many **times that she could recall on the drop of a dime.

Ella kept telling her that those moment would get better with time, but she was pretty sure she was being lied to. This ache didn't lessen with time. If anything, it was just getting worse.

The funny thing was, it wasn't the fact that she was in love with him that bothered her. It was the fact that with each passing day, a small fraction of that love seemed to die. And she couldn't really remember when it started; just that she'd woken up one day hurting a little less than she used to. In that moment of realization, she had had never hated herself more.

"Aria?"

She looked up from her desk, lifting her head up from where she'd been cradling it in her hand while she pretended to read. Everyone – or at least the people that mattered – knew that she couldn't actually process the words when she was in that class. Her thoughts ran too rampant about too many things. But most of all, they always came back to him.

About the son he was supposed to have. She hadn't seen or heard anything about Malcom in a few weeks. About Maggie, and the last time she'd seen her in the school. They'd been arguing. Aria had never seen Ezra so angry.

About Jake, and their failed attempts at trying to make a relationship work. As much as she tried to put her heart into it, it was still half inside the mess she and Ezra had made of their connection.

About all the things that she still had of his. And the box sitting in her closet.

"Hmm?" She murmured softly as she looked at Ezra.

"Bell rang five minutes ago," he said. "You can go."

"Oh," she muttered softly. She got out of her seat a moment later and snatched up her book before heading for the door.

"It's been my experience that students don't generally stick around after detention when they don't have to," Ezra pointed out tentatively as she reached the door.

Aria refrained from the exasperated exhale she could've let go, and simply glanced back up at him. "I'm just scattered today."

And it wasn't a lie. Alison's terror was taking over their lives, and the more prominent the fact that she was still alive became, the more she felt like she was having a meltdown, because **Alison DeLaurentis was dead. **Sure, she hadn't actually seen the body, but others had. Someone had **killed** her.

At least that's what the police said.

Ezra gave a small nod and then looked back down at the desk as Aria turned to leave again. Just as she was stepping out the door though, he spoke once more.

"You know I'm always here if you need to talk."

She couldn't hold her sigh in then. Glancing back over her shoulder, she huffed.

"No, you're not. Because you can't be. You're my **teacher**. I'm your student. That's where the line is drawn now."

She turned on her heel and walked quickly down the hall after that, forgoeing the stop she'd planned to make at her locker. The best thing she could do was get out of the school altogether and get home.

Aria stopped in her tracks for a fifth time as she stared at the box resting in front of Ezra's door. She knew she'd been short with him at the high school and that she should apologize. And for as much as she'd told herself she'd just return his things to him when the year ended and she was done being a student at Rosewood High, the box in her closet had called out to her. She could kill two birds with one stone.

However, standing in his doorway was a completely different story. It brought up too many memories that, in hindsight, were far too fresh. It felt nearly impossible to stand there and convince herself to knock on the door, but she knew that leaving the box there wasn't a bright idea. God help her if she did. 'A' would probably wreak havoc on her life that much more.

Her hands trembled at her sides, and she curled them into fists as she walked over to the door. She wrapped her fist against it three times before leaning down and picking up the box. A few moments later, Ezra answered the door. As Aria took in the sight, her stomach flopped.

He was dressed in plain clothes – jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. There was a towel hanging over his shoulder, and he was chewing something. Upon a glance down at his free hand, Aria realized it was probably the half-eaten celery stick he was holding.

He seemed to choke slightly as he swallowed, but he opened the door wider. "C-come in."

Aria stepped past him into the apartment. She couldn't contain her urge to glance around.

Nothing had changed. Absolutely nothing. The books were still lined in front of the patio doors like always, from his lack of enough shelving units. His bed was unmade, and the pillows were pushed out towards the sides of the bed. He had a winter jacket resting over his couch along with a garment bag. Winter formal was in a few days, so she could only assume he'd been asked to chaperone.

"Where's all Malcom's stuff?" Aria asked. A few seconds after, she realized how intrusive her question was, and the box she was holding dropped on its side onto the floor as she slapped a hand to her mouth.

"Oh fuck- I didn't mean- I'm an idiot," she said fast as she dropped down and turned the box right-side up. She began placing the things back inside it – books Ezra had leant her. Movies he'd insisted she watch, but she'd never given the time of day until she couldn't hold him anymore. Sweaters that didn't smell like him anymore.

"It's fine," Ezra said as he knelt across from her, picking up one of the books. He placed it inside the box.

"He's ah-…He and Maggie aren't in Rosewood anymore," he explained softly. "She's not coming back."

Aria's eyes widened and she pushed herself to her feet. "What?! Why didn't you go after her? Your son-"

"Is not mine," Ezra finished as he followed in suit. "My mother and Maggie swear up and down that someone threatened Malcom's and my wellbeing if they didn't set wheels in motion."

Aria stared at him for a long pause, feeling as if she'd been kicked in the stomach. Set up? Lied to? She wanted to scream, but there was no way she could tell Ezra about A. She couldn't tell him about any of it. Because this was all her fault.

"I'm sorry that happened to you," she said suddenly, coldly. She walked past him and headed for the door, but he grabbed her arm and stopped her from walking out. Aria turned and looked back at him.

"Aria that was weeks ago." He stared at her with a look in his eyes that she could only understand as hopeful. It shattered her heart into a million pieces. "There's nothing standing between us here," he said.

Aria gulped, feeling her fingers start to shake again. Why the hell was this so damn hard?

"We won't ever be good for one another," she told him, pulling her arm from his grip. "No matter what we do, this is never going to be okay in other people's eyes. We only do one thing right Ezra, and that's never going to be enough."

The look in Ezra's eyes was so easily mirrored by her own feelings, and she physically felt like it was his own hands wrapped around her throat, squeezing and cutting off her air supply. She stood there for an insurmountable amount of time before she finally felt as though she should turn and leave. Before she could though, Ezra's free hand reached out and cupped around the side of her head, pulling her into him.

His lips against hers were rough; his skin was hot to the touch, even under the material of his shirt. She couldn't find the will to stop him before his tongue breached the threshold that was her mouth, or before her tiny hands curled into fists around the fabric of his shirt. But as his hands reached for the zipper on the back of her dress, she pressed her hands against his chest and pushed herself away from him.

"We can't do this," she said, never looking up at him.

Ezra reached a hand up under her chin, curling a finger against it as he lifted her face to look at him. "Aria, **please.**"

Aria bit her lip, staring up at him. Whether she was decided or not was regardless though, because her lack of movement was all it took for Ezra to kiss her once more. The fire between them was too much to fight in that moment, and her hands curled into fists around his shirt once more. Ezra's hands moved to the zipper of her dress and tugged it down as she moved backwards towards the bed. She didn't need to move away from him to know where she was going.

When they reached the bed, the dress fell to the floor and she tugged Ezra's t-shirt over his head before moving up onto the bed. His lips were upon hers once more, never parting even as he removed her high heels, and she pushed his pants from his body. Their labored breathing and the creaking of the bed was all that filled the air around them.

Sometime later, when their bodies had come down from their highs and Aria had caught her breath, she moved off the bed and grabbed her clothes from the floor. She pulled her lingerie on and then tugged her dress up her body before pulling her hair around her shoulder. She reached behind herself and tugged the zipper up as far as she could. She tensed slightly as fingers brushed over her own and zipped her dress the rest of the way up. Aria's hands dropped to her sides, and a moment later, she could feel his lips on her shoulder.

Her stomach knotted and she gulped, shaking her head as she stepped away from Ezra.

"I have to go," she said as she picked up her shoes. She walked over to the couch and leaned against it, pulling them onto her feet.

Behind her, Ezra moved off the bed and grabbed his jeans and boxers from the floor. He pulled them up his body and walked over to her.

"Aria-"

She looked up at him and shook her head. "This doesn't change things. I have to go."

Aria walked over to the door, forcing herself to keep moving even as Ezra followed after her. When she reached the door, his hand wrapped around her bicep. She looked back at him, first at his hand wrapped around her arm and then up into his eyes.

"None of it?" He asked. His face was bereft of emotion.

Aria shook her head, forcing herself to inhale a deep breath. "None of it."

Ezra released her arm a moment later, and Aria turned on her heel, walking out of the apartment. She pulled the door shut behind her and stood there for a few moments next to the door, inhaling and exhaling in deep breaths. When she was sure she wasn't going to burst into tears, she walked down the hallway and made her way out of the building.

As she walked over to her car, she had the distinct feeling of being watched – not that she didn't feel like that twenty-four/seven as it was – but somehow she got the feeling that this time it was Ezra. She ignored it anyway as she reached her car and got inside. She started the car and pulled her seatbelt on before punching the radio dial and turning it loud enough that she could feel the pulsing of the speakers in her chest.

"_Ain't gonna beg you to stay  
>Ain't gotta ask you what's wrong<br>Ain't no reason running after something already gone  
>Take off your leaving dress<br>Lets do what we do best  
>I guess everybody's got their way of moving on<em>

_Girl rest your head one more time in my bed  
>Love me like you loved me when you loved me<br>And you didn't have to try  
>Let's lay down tonight<br>And kiss tomorrow goodbye…"_

She inhaled a deep breath as she pulled away from the curb, turning the speakers up even louder. She didn't give a damn if the person in the next car over wanted silence. She needed to drown out all the noise in her head. But as she listened to the words in the song, she knew one thing was true – no matter what happened next, she and Ezra would have this night. That much Alison couldn't take away from her.


End file.
